Arrow vanes



Feb. 19, 1957 w. M. FOLBERTH, JR., EVAL 2,782,036

` ARROW vANEs Filed June 3, 1954 FIG-I INVENTOR. WILLIAM M. FOLBERTHJR vUnited States` Patent-Oce ARROW VANES William M. Folberth, Jr., Lakewood, and Frederick G.

, Folberth, Rocky River, Ohio Application June 3, 1954, Serial No. 434,154

Claims. v(Cl. 273-1065) This invention relates in general to the making of arrows, darts, and the like and in particular eto the fletchng of archery arrows. More particularly,the invention is concerned with the etching of arrows, darts, and the like having thin walled tubular shafts.

Whereas arrows from time immemorial have been fashioned from solid wooden shafts, the modern arrow is made from thin walled light metal tubing and is better balanced, stronger, and more accurate than its predecessors. It has also been found that it is more desirable to etch arrows with vanes composed of Celluloid or other plastic sheet material rather than with feathers, .and the present invention is concerned with tubular arrows having vanes of plastic sheet material secured in slots in the walls of the arrows.

Arrows may be provided with various numbers of vanes; ordinarily, three or four are employed. The vanes yand slots may Iextend in longitudinal alignment with the axis of the arrow,vor may be made slightly askew relative to the axis of the arrow shaft; that is to say, the slots and vanes may be disposed on a very slight helical or spiral vangle with respect to the shaft axis to cause-the arrows to rotate axially in flight. For the purposes of this application, the slots in either arrangement are considered as extending substantially longitudinally. In .the present application, the arrow is shown with four vanes that are helically disposed,-but obviously the invention may be applied to yarrows with other arrangements and numbers of vanes. Y.

vIt is important that the etched or vane supporting portion of the arrow be strong in compression since all of the force of the bow string in accelerating the arrow must be transmitted through this portion of the shaft.

In securing vanes to wooden arrows, it is merely necessary to rabbet Lor ,millthin Vslots in the rear portion of the arrow shaft just forward of the nook or bow string slot. These slotsr are long enough to receive the entire Aedge of a vane, and a vane is glued in each slot. However, when the cnventionallrabbeting operation is performed on a tubular arrow, the slots extend all-of theway through the wall of the `tubeand greatly weakenY the shaft, with the result 4that tubular arrows sok slottedwfrequently fail in compression inthe slottedregion. p n

It is, therefore, a general lobject of'lthe invention to provide a means Afor iletchingathin'waled tubular arrow with one-piece vanes made of thin plastic sheet material such as celluloid and the like. Another object is to provide a construction wherein such vanes may be easily, securely and accurately mounted on a thin walled tubular arrow shaft. A further object of the invention is to pro vide tubular slotted construction for securing vanes to shafts without at the same time unduly weakening the shaft. It is still another object of the invention to proivide a tubular arrow which is sturdy, well balanced, in-

expensive and easy to iletch.

Briefly, the foregoing and other objects of thefinven tion are preferably accomplished by cutting a series of short slots in end to end alignment along the arrow shaft to receive a vane, in lieu of a single long continuous slot.

Patentedv Feb. 19,

Y 2 l A separate series of these short slots is cut in the shaft for each separate vane. Theends of-the adjacent short slots are spaced apart by webs of shaft stock which give the vane carrying portion of the shaft sufficient strength to resist the j thrust of the bow string. Each vane is notched along one edge to receive the webs so asto permit the edge portions between notches tott into adjacent slots where they are glued or otherwise secured, -the notches permitting the vanesV to be inserted in the slots only to the desired depth. Y

Referring to the drawings:

Figure l is a perspective view of an arrow showing the vanes secured to the shaft in accordance with a preferred form of the invention; v

Figure 2 is an end view of the arrow of Figure l, showing a preferred disposition of four vanes on they arrow shaft with respect to the nockin the end of the shaft;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary view, on an enlarged scale, of an arrow shaft in section through'fthe slotted portions of the shaft and showing the manner in which the vanes are fitted into the slots;

Figure 4 is aL fragmentary elevational view of the arrow shaft showing a pair of parallel series of slots in the shaft;

Figure 5 is a cross sectional View of the arrow shaft taken on the line 5-5 of VFigure 4 showing how the vanes project through the slots intothe interior of the tubular shaft; and f v Figure 6 is across sectional view of the arrow shaft taken on the line 6-6 of Figure 4 showing how the webs between the slots connect to form reinforcing bands about the circumference of the shaft. f

As shown in the drawings, a preferred embodiment of a modern arrow comprises a thin walled tubular shaft 10, usually made of aluminum; a solid metal tip 12 secured to the front end of the shaft 10; ashort solid portion 14 secured to the rear end of the arrow in order to provide stockfor cutting a nock 16 therein; and vanes 18,pref ierably made of Celluloid or Asome other similar plastic material. The rear portion of the arrow is preferably tapered as shown in Figure l, but this is not essential and .in Figure 3 the taper is not illustrated.

A series of short narrow slots 20 (Figure 4) are milled or otherwise cut into the shaft 10, cutting the shaft from outer wall surface 24 (Figure 3) through inner wall surface 26, the number ofseries of slots 20 corresponding to the number of vanes to be employed. The slots in each ser-ies are align-ed end to end and extend generally parallel to or in general alignment with the axis of the shaft, preferably along a helix, the angle of which is very slight with respect to the shaft axis 32. j Thatr'is to say, the helix angle of the series of slots, which is the acute vangle 28 between the tangent 30 to the helix and the shaft axis 32.is ordinarily not more `than one or two degrees, although greater or lesser angles may be employed if desired ,j

If three vanes are tokbe used on an arrow shaft, then three separate series' of slots aremachined in the shaft, angularly spaced lapart to secure three vanes therein. When four vanes are` used, they are preferably spaced as shown in Figure 2 with pairs of vanes 34 and 36 with narrow angles between the vanes 18 of each pair. With a four vane arrow, four series of slots 20 (Figure 5) are machined in the shaft 10, generally parallel to each other. Each series of slots forms .a helix in the preferred embodiment of the arrow. It will be noted that with the preferred narrow spacing of the vanes, the vanes do not (project laterally beyond the vertical planes that are tangent to the' forward, larger part of the arrow. With this arrangement, the vanes can pass the bow without striking it when the arrow is shot. Arrows having this arrangement of vanes form the subject matter of application Serial No. 453.543. led September l. 1954.

The slots 42 ineach series are spaced' apart to leave intervening webs 48 between adjacent slot end portions so as to reinforce and join together wall portions 50, 52, 54 and 56 (Figure 5) between pairs of series of slots 20. Thus, each group of co-planar Webs 48 spaced circum ferentially about the shaft 10 (as shown in Figure 6, a section taken on the line 6-6 of Figure 4) establishes what is in effect an unbroken band 60 (Figure 6) about the shaft between each pair of adjacent slot end portions. Webs 48 give this region of the shaft sufficient rigidity to withstand any compressive stress applied thereto by the force of the bow string accelerating the arrow, or the impact of the arrow striking a target.

Vanes 18 have an inner edge 62 adapted to be secured to the shaft 10 and a curved outer edge 64 that may be of any desired configuration. Edge 64 intersects edge 62 to form an apex 66, and extends outwardly and rearwardly from edge 62 toward a rounded end portion 68. Edge 62 is provided with a plurality of notches 70 formed to mate with adjacent webs 48 (Figure 3) thereby allowing the portions 72 to be received in slots 42. The portion of edge 62 between apex 66 and the first notch 70 is somewhat longer than the notches-42 which are of uniform length. Accordingly, in order to fletch the shaft 10 with a vane 18, the apex 66 is first inserted in the forwardmost notch 42. With edge 64 of apex 66 bearing against the corner 74 formed at the junction of the inner wall 26 with the forward end of the forwardmost slot 42, the vane is pivoted toward the shaft 10 until all edge portions 72 have been fitted into corresponding slots 42. Prior to assembly, a little glue or other suitable adhesive may be placed on the entire edge 62 to approximately the depth of the notches 70 so that when in place, vane apex 66 is glued to the inner wall 26, each notch 70 is glued to a mating web 48 and side 68 is glued to the back end of the rearwardmost slot 42.

With this method of etching, the exposed side 64 of the vane 18 is inserted into the shaft 10 at each end and extends below the outer wall surface 24 of the shaft. With both ends of side 64 so protected, no part of the vane is likely to become snagged or torn with consequent damage to or loss of a vane. From the foregoing discussion, it will also be evident that the aforesaid method of slotting a tubular shaft enables an arrow to be fletched rapidly and accurately Without danger of weakening the shaft to the point that it will eventually fail in compression in the slotted area.

it is to be understood that while only one embodiment of the invention is shown herein, this embodiment is by way of example only. Other arrangements and modifications may occur to those skilled in the art and may be resorted to without departing from the scope of the invention.

We claim:

1. In an arrow or the like adapted to be propelled by said shaft to the hollow interior thereof, said slots in said Y series being spaced apart to provide webs therebetween and a unitary vane having an edge disposed in said slots, said edge having projecting portions extending into said slots and having notches between said projecting portions, said notches being spaced to correspond to the spacing of said webs and receiving said webs when said projecting portions are disposed in said slots.

2. An arrow or the like according to claim 1 having a plurality of substantially parallel series of slots with a vane in each slot.

3. An arrow or the like according to claim 2 wherein the series of slots are disposed at a slight helical angle to the axis of the shaft.

4. An arrow or the like adapted to be propelled by force exerted on the rear end thereof, comprising a thinwalled hollow tubular shaft provided adjacent the rear end portion thereof with a plurality of series of narrow elongated slots extending through the wall of said shaft to the interior thereof, and the slots in each series being aligned end to end generally along the longitudinal axis of said shaft, the slots in each series being separated by intervening webs integral with the wall of said shaft, the intervening webs in each series of slots being in substantial circumferential alignment with the webs in the other series of slots, and a vane integrally formed from thin flat sheet material disposed in each series of slots and projecting outwardly from said shaft, each vane having an edge having a plurality of notches therein spaced to cormediate said notches entering adjacent slots and extending Vtherethrough and the notches receiving said webs.

5. An arrow or the like adapted to be propelled by force exerted on the rear end thereof, comprising a thin walled hollow tubular shaft provided adjacent the rear end portion thereof with a plurality of series of narrow elongated slots extending through the wall of said shaft to the interior thereof, and the slots in each series being aligned end to end generally along the longitudinal axis of said shaft, the slots in each series being separated by intervening webs integral with the wall of said shaft, the intervening webs in each series of slots being in substantial circumferential alignment with the webs in the other series of slots, and a vane integrally` formed from thin flat sheet material disposed in each series of slots and projecting outwardly from said shaft, each vane having an edge having a plurality of notches therein spaced to correspond to said webs, the portions of said edge intermediate said notches entering adjacent slots and extending therethrough and the notches receiving said webs, the forward end of each vane making locking engagement with the inner surface of said shaft.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 948,177 Lehmann Feb. l, 1910 2,193,397 Dykes Mar. 12, 1940 2,554,012 Cohen May 22, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 498,823 Great Britain Jan. l0, 1939 523,856 Great Britain July 24, 1940 589,208 Great Britain June 13, 1947 

